The present invention relates to an apparatus for bending and holding wire for wire end processing, and more specifically to an apparatus for bending wire into U-shape and holding the U-shape bent wire so as to be suitable for end processing of a wire harness at the succeeding process.
A wire harness is composed of a number of wires of various different lengths. Further, the wires of the wire harness are divided into a plurality of branch portions according to the arrangement path lengths of the respective wires. A group of terminals connected to the respective wire ends of each branch portion are fitted to a connector housing, respectively.
In manufacturing the wire harness composed of a number of wires having terminals at the respective wire ends, it is advantageous to effect the wire end processing under condition that the wire ends are all trued up appropriately. Here, the wire end processing implies the manufacturing process as follows: the wire lengths are measured; the wires of measured lengths are cut off; the insulating material of the cut-off wires is removed at both ends thereof; and terminals are attached to the ends of the wires, etc.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an example of conventional apparatus for bending, holding and further conveying U-shape bent wires, which is disclosed in Japanese Examined (KoKoKu) Patent Publication No. 53-39593. As shown in FIG. 1A, this conventional apparatus comprises a jig body a and a guide plate b formed with an inner U-shaped guide groove c. With the use of this conventional apparatus, the wire is processed as follows: a wire W is first let out along the U-shaped groove c formed between the jig body a and the guide plate b; the let-in side of the wire is clamped by a clamper d.sub.1 ; the guide plate b formed with the inner U-shaped guide groove c is removed upward away from the jig body a, as shown in FIG. 1B; the wire W is further let out to a predetermined wire length as shown in FIG. 1B; the other let-out end of the bent wire is clamped by another clamp d.sub.2 ; the wire is cut off to true up both ends W.sub.0 and W.sub.0 of the U-shaped bent wire; and the bent wire W' of a predetermined length is further conveyed toward a wire end processing machine (not shown) together with the jig body a.
In the conventional apparatus for bending and holding wire as described above, however, since the bent wire W' of a predetermined length is conveyed to the succeeding process together with the jig body, a great number of jig bodies a are inevitably required for wire end processing, continuously, thus causing a problem in that the wire processing machine is complicated in structure and large in size and volume.